Blazing Through!

 What a difference being in the right frame of mind can make when training and how quickly your dog will pick up on that. The other day I'd been a funk all afternoon and thought, "Why not train Blaze?"  Hoping it would make me feel better.  Well, she didn't want to be my fix-it dog for my mood and madee sure I knew it.  I took Blaze out for our second practice walk with the no-pull head halter and the halter didn't phase her a bit.  She just keep pulling me.  So needless to say our training walk was rather short and I felt worse than before. 

So last night, I decided to work with Blaze again.  I hadn't given up any hope and I was in a good frame of mind.  The difference was night and day.  She was willing and able.  Didn't give me a hard time about anything and she did fantastic.  We practice walking in and out of the gate and she was giving me eye contact after I made her sit in front of open gate!!  I about fell over.  It was so cool!!  Blaze's mind is usually working over time, focused on everything but me, so I couldn't believe when I looked down there she was staring at me, waiting for my command.  I was so caught off guard, I couldn't think what to do next.  She sat there looking and smiling at me while my thoughts fumbled around with the next command as if to say, "I can do it too!"

We made it up and down the driveway a couple of times.  There were a ton of distraction from the Back Dogs whooping and hollering that didn't seem to phase Blaze, but I was having one hell of time.  So I guess their raucous was for me to work on my focus.  Just what I needed, I bunch of smart ass dogs!

I learned a couple of things:  One: Blaze needs to move quickly and swiftly, so once I picked my pace, things went smoothly.  Two:  Never underestimate the power of a dog or how keen they are on your mood swings.  It can make the difference between a great learning session or feeling like you've done pooper scooper duty all day, and nobody needs that!!